A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report has concluded that the two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have proven highly effective in preventing COVID-19 hospitalization among individuals 12 to 18.
Earlier this year, federal officials approved vaccines for children as young as 12. Experts now are closing in on vaccinations for children under 12.
Released on Tuesday, October 19, the report revealed that currently, 46 percent of U.S. children and adolescents aged 12-to-15 and 54 percent of those aged 16 and 17 had received full vaccination against COVID-19.
The study found that recipients of two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine proved highly effective in preventing COVID-19 hospitalization among those 12-to-18-years-old.
“The data suggest that increasing vaccination coverage among this group could reduce the incidence of severe COVID-19 in the United States,” officials wrote in a fact sheet.
Further, as in-person school attendance increases, multicomponent preventive measures to reduce the incidence of severe COVID-19 among adolescents, including vaccination, are imperative.
Conclusively, the CDC report noted in a real-world evaluation of U.S. pediatric hospitals, about 97 percent of unvaccinated adolescents aged 12–18 years were hospitalized with COVID-19.
The findings are consistent with efficacy data from the Pfizer-BioNTech clinical trial among those ages 12-to-15.
Finally, in the real-world analysis, in which all case patients were hospitalized, vaccination reduced the risk for COVID-19 hospitalization in persons aged 12 to 18 years by 93 percent.
Moreover, 16 percent of unvaccinated patients hospitalized with COVID-19 had critical illnesses requiring life support.
